What to Play: Panzer Dragoon

by Russ Brown, The Opaque Senator: GGR Contributor

2020 has been an interesting year, hasn't it? At the time of writing this, we are about halfway through it, and it certainly feels like life is just all over the map at this point. At the time of upload we have been under lock down orders for 2 months. On the obvious hand, life has been challenging for many, with people losing jobs, income, even some losing hope and faith. On another hand, it has allowed for some amazing creativity in how we conduct our lives.

For me, this time has been a chance for me to reflect on the past. I have slowly been catching up on a backlog of video games, movies, series, and shows from everywhere. Lost in the shuffle though back in March, a title came out on the Nintendo Switch that flew largely under the radar; Panzer Dragoon: Remake. Most of you have likely not heard of this game. For those that have, you may know someone (like myself, haha) that was extremely excited for this remake. But...why? This game got very limited press at launch. What is it? What is it a remake of exactly?

I think it's important to look at the original title from someone who has a unique perspective on it; in other words, someone who grew up with it and sees the value. Panzer Dragoon was a launch title for the ill-fated American release of the Sega Saturn in 1995, a console I am apparently in the among a select few that owned, played through extensively, and continue to appreciate. The genre is that of an arcade style on-rails shooter, meaning it's a flight game (though not all rail shooters need to incorporate flight) where you shoot down enemies and bosses on a predetermined path. Like many games on the Saturn, it has a rather long 7+ minute introductory cut scene giving us the lay of the land story wise. I won't get too much into that in case you dig up the original game or decide on the checking out the remake.

Rail shooters have generally appeared to fall out of favor of today's game market. The most popular of them all, the StarFox series of games, in its most recent attempt to come back on the Wii U, did not do well even though Fox McCloud is one of Nintendo's flagship characters. For me, rail shooters are among my favorite types of games. There's a level of technical expertise and memorization you have to have to play through a good rail shooter and succeed. And though they have a specific style, there's a lot you can do with this genre. I often think of of Panzer Dragoon and StarFox but also games like Virtua Cop and Time Crisis. Sega's best in my opinion (and most ridiculously challenging) is Radiant Silvergun.

Panzer's uniqueness in the rail shooter genre comes from its unique set up. Unlike most rail shooters where you are constantly forced to look in certain directions at all times, in Panzer you have the ability to look in all 4 directions. This makes the action unique and frenetic. You have access to a radar at the top right of your screen, and you constantly need to be aware of what is around you to move away from danger and defend yourself. You have two modes of attack: one is from the rider, which is basic a blaster gun that he retrieves from the fallen rider at the beginning of the game. It can fire quick shots at your targets for damage. The other mode of attack comes from the dragon you ride, which is a lock on homing laser of which you can have multiple targets locked on and fired at once.

The control scheme is simple, you really only need to use one of the button for firing and locking on. The shift buttons on the Sega Saturn controller are what alter your view around the dragon. The challenge comes in the number of enemies and projectiles you are dealing with at once, finding weakness and timings to beat stronger enemies, and lasting through the levels taking as little damage as possible. As I mentioned, this is an arcade style shooter. This means the game length is short; you can beat the game in a little over an hour if you know what you are doing. But this is unlikely in your first several, if not 50, playthroughs. You have 2 continues to start, and can earn more by killing in the high 90th percentiles of the enemies you see. But even once your practiced, this gets more challenging once you get beyond the second episode. For it's time, the game was majestic in sound and aesthetics. Today, 32 bit graphics won't exactly be knocking anyone's socks off, but if you look at other 3D games at its time, you will not see much looking like Panzer Dragoon. Even today, the short but well put together soundtrack is excellent. It's synthesized sound adds a great atmosphere to this dystopian future utilizing ancient technology, with fantastical creatures also present, though there are also orchestrated pieces in the introduction sequence and the first episode. The soundtrack was remade as well in the remake, one that I have been listening to and enjoying over the last week and a half. I really like the remix of episode 3's level track...

However, I enjoy the original version of the first level's theme, known simply as Flight. This was an orchestrated track to really show off the CD quality of the soundtrack, and you can feel it's sense of wonder, breadth and scale while you fly through air on your dragon taking out everything in your path.

I look forward to playing the remake. I unfortunately do not own a Switch, but there is supposed to be a release on Steam for PC later this year. I cannot wait for the nostalgia to hit me hard. Panzer Dragoon was a success for the early Saturn, to the tune that there were 3 sequels made for it. Panzer Dragoon II: Zwei came out not long after in the same style as its predecessor. However, the graphics were furthered cleaned up, and they added an very interesting component in the ability to choose different pathways, leading further to different evolutions of the dragon you are riding, focusing on attack, defense, or balancing the two. Completing the game at a high level leads you to an additional final form of the last boss.

The third game in the series, also for the Sega Saturn, was called Panzer Dragoon Sagas. This is a full fleshed, 4 disc RPG utilizing game play elements of the original 2 games in a fully fleshed out story. This game came out towards the end of the Saturn's run, and thus is very rare and hard to find. You can see copies of this game go for north of $600 on eBay. The final in the series came out on the original Xbox, known as Panzer Dragoon Orta. It's a truly beautiful, challenging game even by today's standards, another I highly recommend picking up if you are into the rail shooter genre and like difficult games. It is not for the faint of heart, but is regarded as one of the best rail shooters of all time.If you are curious about the original game, I did a “Let's Play” of it on my good friend SomeCallMeJohnny's Let's Play channel years ago. We go a lot more into depth about it and you can see the full game. Part 1 of that series (we had a fun time) linked here..

I hope you all are enjoying your quarantines as best you can. Play some games you've not done yet, watch those shows and movies, get outside for some walks.Until next time, friends...